


Operation: Get Jopper Together

by Browneyesparker



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Romance, Scheming, stranger things big bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 06:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10848366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browneyesparker/pseuds/Browneyesparker
Summary: “Dude, the the Chief is so into your mother!” Steve whispered to Jonathan when Hopper stopped by to drop off ice cream for the gang just because.Steve and the gang scheme to get Joyce and Hopper together.





	Operation: Get Jopper Together

“Dude, the the Chief is so into your mother!” Steve whispered to Jonathan when Hopper stopped by to drop off ice cream for the gang _just because_.

 _“Steve!”_ Jonathan hissed. “Shhh! They can hear you.”

Steve wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “I bet she likes him too! Why aren’t they dating yet?”

Jonathan looked at him incredulously. “Maybe because my mother is dating someone else right now.”

“The Radio Shack guy,” Steve said passively. “I’ve seen them around town together, I’m telling you there’s nothing there! No spark, no chemistry!”

“What would you know about chemistry? Except that you’re failing it,” Jonathan retorted.

“You wound me, Johnny. Truly you do!” Steve replied, clasping his chest and pretending to look hurt.

“You’ll get over it and live,” Jonathan answered, smirking at him.

“But for real, we should try and do something to get them together!” Steve said a gleam of mischief in his eye. “Hawkins has been as dull as a Barry Manilow concert ever since Ellie destroyed all of the monsters and got rid of Brenner and company.”

Jonathan rolled his eyes. “And playing matchmaker is going to be more fun than monster hunting? Who are you? Emma Woodhouse?”

_“Who!?”_

“We literally just read _Emma_ in Lit,” Jonathan reminded him. “You got an A on the written essay.”

“Oh, is that the one where the annoying chick tries to get everybody together and then marries her brother-in-law’s, brother?”

Jonathan blinked a couple of times and didn’t say anything about how the annoying _dude_ sitting next to him was doing the same thing. “Yeah. Sure, that’s the one.”

“So, are we going to try and get them together or not?” Steve asked, going back to the subject at hand.

 _“Not!”_ Jonathan answered. “My mother will not be happy if I get involved in her life like that.”

“What does she see in the Radio Shack guy anyways?”

“Bob? I guess she wants us to have some male influence in Will’s and my life and he’s nice.”

“The Chief would be a good influence on any young man’s life,” Steve said trying to sound sage.

“Oh my gah— Steve _will you knock it off_!”

“Maybe Nancy will help me,” Steve mused.

“Do _not_ get your girlfriend involved with your little scheme.”

“I bet I could get Ellie and the rest of the kids to help too.”

“Do _not_ get my brother or sister or any of their friends involved with your little scheme.”

Steve smiled. “You’re no fun at all!”

“You’re going to get them involved, aren’t you?”

“Nobody would suspect cute kids, Johnny Boy!”

Jonathan rolled his eyes. “First of all, everybody suspects _cute_ kids. Have you not seen any horror movie _ever_? Second of all, I’m 1oo percent sure that my mother would not want us getting involved! You haven’t seen her get angry.”

“She’s not going to get angry because she’s going to realize we’re putting her with the love of her life. It’s written in the stars, their zodiacs are a perfect match.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s nothing written in the stars,” Jonathan argued.

“What are you boys talking about?” Joyce asked, interrupting their conversation.

“Nothing!” Steve said quickly, turning on his Eddie Haskell charm. “Actually, Jonathan asked me to stay for dinner.”

“No I didn’t—”

“Dustin, Mike and Lucas are staying too! The more the merrier!” Joyce said cheerfully. “We’re having lasagna.”

Steve beamed. “You know what I like, Miz Byers!”

 _“Stop. IT,”_ Jonathan said tersely.

“I’m totally giving you the invisible bird right now,” Steve told him.

“Alright, why don’t you boys put your books away and start setting the table for dinner,” Joyce requested.

“Sure thing, Mrs. Byers!” Steve answered helpfully.

“I can see right through you Steve Harrington,” Jonathan said when Joyce had left the room. “You really need to stop it.”

“I’m not doing anything!” Steve protested, feigning innocence. _“Yet.”_

Jonathan closed his eyes. “I’m going to have to help you out, aren’t I?”

“Since when have you not helped me out? Remember, you, me and Nancy are a team. We’re the Monster Hunting Trio, _the Three Musketeers_!”

“You always throw me when you make literary references,” Jonathan quipped.

“Excuse you! I’m not just good looks and charm, thank you very much!”

“Okay,” Jonathan agreed, smiling at him like he’d found a flaw in his friend’s plan. “ _But_ do you think Nancy will really agree to help you? She’s more mature than the both of us, you know. I’ll be shocked if she says she’ll be your accomplice.”

**.**

“I’ll do it!” Nancy agreed later that night over ice cream sundaes in the Wheeler’s basement.

“You will!?” Jonathan said, looking shocked.

“Out of the three of us, who’s the best forger?”

“You,” he admitted. “But who says we’re going to be forging notes? It’s not like we need to get out of history.”

“But we need to make Mrs. Byers think the Chief is into her,” Nancy said.

“He does like her. I saw it all with my own eyes at Chez Byers tonight when he dropped off ice cream. He just needs a little shove.”

“I only agreed to go along with this because I didn’t think Nancy would do it!” Jonathan said. “We cannot do this you two. My mom is with somebody else.”

“Come on Johnny! You always go along with us eventually, why is this time any different?”

“Because _this time_ it’s my mother! Not a Demogorgon!”

“This is a lot less scary than a Demogorgon,” Steve assured him.

“Have you met my mother?”

“Um, yeah and she loves me!” Steve answered.

“Because she doesn’t know how douchey you really are.”

“Jonathan!” Nancy chided.

“This is a really bad idea guys,” Jonathan tried to tell them. “But of course you’re not going to listen to me, you two will do whatever the hell it is you want and we’ll all get into trouble. Just like always.”

“Don’t you want your mother to be happy?” Steve asked.

Jonathan narrowed his eyes. “Don’t play that card, Steve. Don’t play dirty. You know one of the things I really want in life is for my mother to be happy.”

“Let’s do this then!” Steve said.

**.**

“You want us to do _what_?” Mike asked. “Steve, sometimes I really don’t get you. What if we get caught? We could get into a lot of trouble!”

“It could be fun,” Nancy hedged.

Mike made a face at his older sister. “You’re only saying that because you’re Steve’s girlfriend. If you weren’t dating him, would you be going along with this? Never mind, don’t answer that! Girls probably think this kind of stuff is romantic.”

“Are you sure my mom really likes the Chief?” Will asked carefully. “And that he likes her?”

“It’s so obvious little man!” Steve assured him.

El frowned. “If they like each other then why aren’t they together? Like me and Mike?”

Steve grinned. “Because you and Mike are a lot smarter than adults.”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t mean that they won’t be on to us. Adults aren’t _that_ stupid, Steve. This isn’t a movie where the parents don’t have a clue.”

Steve smirked at him. “Do you even have parents?”

“Do _you_?” Lucas retorted.

“That’s enough!” Nancy interjected, holding up her hand to stop what was going to turn into bickering if she didn’t intervene.

“If my mom really likes the Chief, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to give them a little push in the right direction. . .” Will said thoughtfully. “Are you sure she does, Steve? Really, really sure?”

“I saw it with my own two eyes!” Steve answered.

Lucas eyed him suspiciously. “And it has nothing to do with the fact that you’re bored? There hasn’t been very much going on lately.”

“I would never interfere with anybody’s life just because I was bored!” Steve half-fibbed. “Seriously, I think they’d be good together.”

“So, what are we going to do with Mr. Newby?” Mike asked. “He might actually _really_ like her. Don’t you think you should we take his feelings into consideration?”

“I’ll go into Radio Shack and ask him if he’s in love with her,” Steve said. “Okay?”

“You can’t just walk into Radio Shack and casually ask Mr. Newby if he’s in love with Mrs. Byers like you’re asking him for a new Walkman,” Lucas informed him.

“Says who?” Steve challenged.

Lucas rolled his eyes. “You are _such_ a doofus!”

“I know you are but what am I?” Steve replied.

“Steve, why don’t you act like you’re a senior in high school,” Nancy reminded him. “Lucas, if you don’t want to help us then you don’t have to.”

“I mean we’ve slayed monsters, exposed fake government agents and rescued damsels in distress-”

“I was _not_ a damsel in distress,” El interjected.

“Okay,” Lucas conceded. “But that withstanding isn’t getting two old people together a little _armature_?”

“My mom isn’t _old_ ,” Will said.

Lucas huffed. “Why is everybody so argumentative today?”

“What does your plan consist of?” Will asked.

“Forgery, sneaking into the Chief’s office—”

“How are we going to sneak into Chief Hopper’s office?” Lucas interrupted.

“We could give the note to Flo,” Mike suggested. “And tell her it’s from Mrs. Byers for the Chief, it involves just a little bit of sneaking around and it’s insurance that he’ll actually see it. Flo gives him all his messages.”

Steve’s eyes lit up. “That’s actually a really good idea. Nance, your brother’s just as good at scheming as you are!”

“I taught him well,” Nancy said.

“I still don’t think this is a good idea,” Jonathan interjected.

Will tugged at his brother’s sleeve. “But it might make mom _really_ happy. I think Steve’s right, I’ve seen her with the Chief and I’ve seen her with Mr. Newby and there _is_ a difference. I swear!”

“I’m going to make one last argument even though I know it won’t do anything because clearly you have all made up your minds. But you do realize we could ruin their relationships with each other, right? Especially if they don’t really like each other.”

“You should have told them about how much trouble we’ll be in when they find out we’re responsible for it,” Lucas said. “We’ll be grounded for life, Nancy and Steve and Jonathan would probably be grounded until they went to college.”

Steve nodded. “Okay, okay. I see your arguments. I hear what you’re saying and just let me counter them both by saying. . . _I DON’T CARE!_ We’ve got to try!”

**.**

“Um, hi Flo. . .” Will trailed off and waited to make sure he had the older woman’s attention.

Flo peered over her glasses and smiled. “Oh, hello William. Michael, Elle. I can tell you right now, the Chief will not let you sit in a holding cell for research.”

“Actually, we came to drop something off!” Mike answered. “Give her the note, Will. You’re the one who has it.”

“Oh, right!” Will took the envelope out of his pocket and smoothed it out. “Could you make sure Chief Hopper gets this? It’s from my mom.”

“It’s _very_ important!” El added for good measure.

“Well, I’ll see that he gets it as soon as he gets back from lunch,” Flo assured them. “Now have a Lifesaver then run along and play. A police station is no place for children to be hanging around!”

**.**

“Chief, you have a note here from Joyce Byers,” Flo informed him as he breezed past her, cigarette hanging from his mouth.

“A note from _Joyce_?” Hopper asked, buttoning his top two buttons on his shirt. “Well, what does it say?”

“I didn’t read it,” Flo replied.

“You didn’t steam it open with the tea kettle or hold it up to the light?”

Flo frowned at him. “No.”

“Why would Joyce leave me a note instead of calling me?” Hopper asked.

“I don’t know, Jim. You’re the ace detective around here, not me. Why don’t you open it and find out?”

“Usually when she wants or needs something, she _calls_ me. Don’t you think this is a little strange?”

“Stranger than what else has been going on here the last 18 months?” Flo shook her head. “No. maybe she likes you. It could be one of those _check yes or no_ notes.”

Hopper made a face. “Very funny.”

“We can stand here and talk about it all day or you can see what the note says,” Flo said.

“I’ll be in my office,” Hopper replied.

Flo smiled. “If you want to talk, I’ll be here.”

**.**

“Mama, I found this note leaning against the door,” El said like Steve had told her to. “I think it’s from the Chief.”

“Really? Joyce frowned. “He usually stops by if he wants something. Why would he leave a note?”

“I dunno. . .” El answered, sitting down and picking up a crayon. “You should open it and see what he wants.”

“It might be really important,” Will added.

“Ah, I think if it were _really_ terribly important, he’d stop by and see me. . .” Joyce told them. “Notes aren’t really his style.”

Will and El looked at each other wordlessly, hoping their mother wouldn’t catch their quick exchange.

“Maybe they’re baseball tickets,” Will finally suggested.

“Baseball tickets?” Joyce repeated. “Why would he leave them on the porch? They’re kind of an expensive purchase to just leave lying around.”

“Mom!” Will protested. “You’ll never know what it says until you open it. Don’t you want to know?”

Joyce grinned at her youngest son. “Okay, fine. Let’s see what Hop has to say.”

**.**

“She wants to have dinner with me!” Hopper said, coming out of his office and shoving the note in Flo’s face before lighting a cigarette. “Why would she write a note asking me to have _dinner_ of all things?”

“I’ve honestly got no clue,” Flo answered, waving the smoke away from her face. “Are you going to accept her invitation or not?”

“I don’t know.” Hopper puffed away. “She’s not a very good cook, if we’re being honest.”

“I wouldn’t tell her that if I were you,” Flo advised. “She might not ask you over again if you do.”

“Believe it or not, I know how to talk to women! I was married, after all!” Hopper retorted.

Flo raised an eyebrow and refrained from saying _and look how well that worked out_ because she knew it wouldn’t be fair to him if she said it. After all, it hadn’t been poor communication skills that had led to his marriage dissolving.

“Well, are you going to say yes or no?” Flo repeated.

“She’s still with Bob. . .”

Flo clucked her tongue and peered at him over her glasses. “So many excuses,” she said, shaking her head at him. “Is she married to Bob Newby? I don’t think so. Besides, you two are friends. Dinner is hardly a scandalous affair! It’s just dinner! Unless you want it to be something more. . .”

“Me? Never! I don’t have time for relationships. You’re right, I’ll just go and have dinner with her. Her sons and El will probably be there. The same with the Byers kids and the other two. Oh, and that Harrington boy,” Hopper rambled. “You’re right, she probably just wants to have dinner! She’s been asking for a while now. Who knows, Newby might even be there too! I’ll say yes but just to prove to you we’re just friends.”

“I’m not the one who needs convincing!” Flo called out.

**.**

“Why does Hop want to have dinner with _me_?” Joyce asked.

El smirked as she sketched out a picture of Mike and hummed a song.

Will smiled. “Are you going to say yes?”

“I-I don’t know,” Joyce answered. “I’m seeing somebody else right now, I can’t just go out and have dinner with Hopper.”

“It might just be as friends,” Will suggested like Steve had told him to if Joyce questioned them.

“It better be,” Joyce muttered. “He knows I’m seeing Bob, he _knows_.”

“Has he asked you out before?” Will asked innocently.

Joyce laughed. “No. Well, maybe once a long time ago before Jonathan and you and Ellie came along. We were still in high school and I think he was kind of joking because he laughed when he asked.”

“He could have just been nervous,” Will said. “Mike gets nervous all the time when he’s around El!”

El kicked him under the table. “Will!”

“Hop wasn’t the kind of guy who got nervous about anything, honey.”

“Oh. So, are you going to say yes?”

“Why would he write me a note to ask me to have dinner with him?” Joyce mused mostly to herself. “We see each other all the time, he could just _ask_ me face-t0-face. It’s just _weird_ , isn’t it weird?”

“Not really,” Will hedged.

“Maybe I should call him,” Joyce said.

Will and El looked at each other and frantically signaled at each other to try and stop their mother from calling the chief of police.

“Mama!” El yelped. “I-I. . . _headache_!”

Joyce folded the note up and put it in her pocket before turning to her adopted daughter. “Are you okay, honey?”

El nodded. “I-I’ll be okay,” she managed, her heart beating out of her chest.

“She might need some Motrin for her headache,” Will said helpfully.

“I do,” El agreed.

“I’ll be right back sweetie,” Joyce answered as she put the letter down and went to the bathroom to get the Motrin from the medicine cabinet.

“What are we going to do?” Will asked frantically when their mother had left the room. “There is no way she’s going to say yes to the Chief’s invitation!”

El shrugged. “Ask Steve.”

“Here’s some medicine, honey!” Joyce said, shoving it into El’s hand. “On a scale of 1-10, how bad does it hurt?”

“Um. . . 6,” El answered, desperately trying to distract her mother from the real subject at hand.

Joyce helped her out of the chair. “Come on honey, let’s get you put to bed.  Would you like a cold compress to put over your eyes? I know it helps sometimes.”

“Um, yes!” El replied, looking at her adopted brother who gave her encouraging thumbs up. “That would be nice.”

“Okay, come on! Will, I’ll be right back.”

Will ran to the phone when she was gone and dialed Steve’s number as fast as he could. “Yeah, hi. I don’t think she’s going to say yes. We have to think of another way to get them together! Okay! We’ll be there when she leaves for her shift at Radio Shack. She’s coming! I gotta go.”

“El’s in bed,” Joyce told him, kissing him on the cheek. “Check on her in an hour or two, okay? I’ll see you later.”

Will hugged his mom and followed her to the door, waving her off.

“Is she gone?” El called from her bedroom.

“Coast is clear!” Will answered. “Maybe we should wait a few minutes just to be safe! I’ll let you know when you can come out!”

**.**

Steve opened the door and let them in, leading them all to the living room.

“Well, Mrs. Byers was a no go!” he said when they were all seated with glasses of lemonade and chocolate chip cookies. “She wouldn’t even agree to meet him for dinner. So, we need to trick them some other way.”

“We don’t even know what the Chief said,” Lucas told him. “Maybe we just need to let it go. . .”

“Steve, do you need more cookies!?” Mrs. Harrington called from the kitchen.

“Ma, I have company!” Steve answered, turning around and smiling sheepishly. “So, what are we going to do?”

Jonathan rolled his eyes. “I think Lucas is right, we need to let it go. My mom is happy and she’d never cheat on Newby even by just having dinner with some other guy.”

“I am not giving up _that_ easily!”  Steve said. “If anybody gave up easily the first time something failed, we’d still be living in the dark ages!”

“Why don’t you apply yourself to your studies the way you’re applying yourself to my mother’s love life?” Jonathan grumbled.

Steve pretended he couldn’t hear him and continued to talk. “So, Will you and Mike and Ellie need to go right back to the police station and tell Hop something came up and they can’t do the thing. This is very important, you have tell him that Mrs. Byers sent you to tell him.”

“Okay,” El agreed.

“The rest of us will figure something out while we wait for you to get back,” Steve said.

**.**

“I see you’re back again,” Flo said. “What can I do for you three now?”

“Um. . .” El trailed off.

“Is Chief Hopper in?” Will asked.

“I’m right here,” Hopper answered. “What’s up?”

“Remember that invitation we brought in a little while ago? Mom sent us to tell you that it’s not going to work out right now.”

Hopper raised an eyebrow. “Why couldn’t she tell me this herself?”

“Because she’s at work right now,” Mike replied, grinning at him. “But she wanted you to know right away.”

Hopper smiled back. “Well, thank you for coming all this way to come and tell me.”

When the kids left, Hopper turned to Flo and smirked.

“What?”

“I told you they were up to something. There’s no way Joyce invited me to dinner and sent them to cancel it right afterwards.”

Flo grinned. “That’s the cutest thing! They want you two to be together.”

“It’s never going to happen. Especially now that I’m on to them.”

“Okay,” Flo said, standing up. “I’m going to take my lunch break now. I’ll be back later.”

She caught up with the kids.

“Hi Flo!” El said, smiling when she saw the older woman.

“Listen, I know you’re planning something to get Hopper and Joyce together. I’d like to help you out!” Flo told them.

**.**

“Why are we all going over to Flo’s house again?” Joyce asked suspiciously.

“She’s testing out new recipes and she wants to run them by kids before she gives them to her grandchildren,” Nancy answered.

“And why did she need me to come?”

“Just for fun,” El said, putting her hand in Joyce’s.

When they got to Flo’s front door, Will and El ducked to the back, leaving Joyce all by herself. Steve opened the door, dressed in his prom tuxedo.

“Hello Mrs. B!”

“Steve! What are you doing here? Dressed like _that_?”

Steve laughed and brought her inside. “Who doesn’t wear a tux on a Saturday night?”

“Where’s Flo?” Joyce asked, her eyes widening when she saw Hopper sitting at a table set for two. “What are you doing here, Hop?”

Steve laughed again and went over to a cassette player. He pressed play and _Making Love Out Of Nothing At All_ filled the air. “Enjoy your dinner guys!”

Jonathan ran in from the kitchen and turned the music off, switching it to a tape he had made for the occasion. “Steve, we vetoed that song, remember!?”

“What’s going on?” Joyce asked, sitting across from Hopper as a “Tears For Fears” song started to play.

“Why don’t you tell me,” Hopper replied. “They’re your kids.”

“Not all of them,” Joyce answered, tucking her hair behind her ears.

“This is a wild guess but I’m assuming they think we’re in love with each other,” Hopper said.

Joyce frowned and poured herself a glass of wine. “Where would they get an idea like that?”

Hopper shrugged. “Too much TV and movies, I suppose. And I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Michael Wheeler has it pretty bad for your daughter. She probably has stars in her eyes and is seeing romance everywhere she looks.”

“Yeah,” Joyce agreed. “Besides, I’m with Bob and I like him a lot. He’s a good guy.”

“Yeah.”

“Dinner’s ready!” Flo called.

“Flo!?” Joyce mouthed. “She’s involved too?”

“It would be a shame to let all their hard work go to waste,” Hopper said.

“Friends can share dinner,” Joyce agreed. “We’re friends right.”

“Some of the best of friends,” Hopper answered, not quite meeting her eyes because he’d been avoiding the truth for a long time.

He didn’t just want to be her friend. Maybe he’d felt this way since they were in high school but they’d both made different decisions.

But he didn’t want to get in her way either.

**.**

“I can’t believe we failed,” Steve said as they washed dishes later that night. “I thought for sure it would work. I just know he likes her like her”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “How’d you expect this night to end? With the two of them driving off in the sunset together? I’ve been telling you this the whole time, it’s just not the way real life works out!”

“I think we just need to leave them alone now,” Jonathan said. “It’s over with! We just need to stop interfering because as much as you would like for it to happen, I don’t see them ever getting together!”

“I don’t want to give up!” Steve protested.

Nancy took the dish he was holding and rinsed it off, sighing as she did. “Maybe if it’s meant to be, it’ll work out when it’s supposed to, all on its own.”

“It should have worked out _now_!” Steve insisted.

“Give it time,” Flo advised. “I have a good feeling about this. You’ve given them a little shove, we’ll see where it goes from here.”

**.**

“I wasn’t honest with you that night we had dinner at Flo’s house,” Hopper confessed a few weeks later. “The truth is I do like you. I like you a lot, Joyce. But I don’t want to come between you and Bob. So, the choice is up to you. You can pretend I wasn’t a complete jerk and didn’t say anything. Or one day, when you’re ready, you can come and see me when you’re ready. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Joyce shook her head, unsure of what to say next. Even though she wasn’t sure how Bob felt about her, she didn’t want to trade in what she had for him for an _I like you a lot_ because it wasn’t stable or dependable.

 _I like you a lot_ was a lot like high school. The equivalent of a _check yes or no if you like me too_ note stuffed in the other person’s locker.

“How long will you wait?” Joyce asked in spite of herself.

“For as long as it’ll take,” Hopper replied.

“Okay,” Joyce said.

**.**

She moved forward expecting things to work out with Bob and for a while, they did. He was still good to her and he treated her children like they were his own. But Hopper was there too and he did the same thing. He took all the kids, including their friends, to ball games and he brought them ice cream at least once a week.

Despite her best efforts, she started to imagine a life with him and it looked good.

So, one day when summer was turning into fall, she told Bob that she didn’t know if she saw a future with him. He understood he kind of had always suspected she had feelings for someone else and all he wanted was for her to be happy.

Joyce waited a few weeks because she thought it was the right thing to do, she didn’t want to break up with Bob and run head first into a relationship with somebody else. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them if she did that.

When she had waited long enough, she put on her best dress and borrowed some lipstick from Karen. Then she went to see Hopper at work.

Flo smiled at her like she knew exactly why she was there and sent her to Hopper’s office.

He looked up from the paperwork he was filling out.

“Joyce,” he said.

“I was wondering if you were still waiting,” she answered.

Hopper nodded. “I told you that I’d wait for you as long as it took.”

“I’m ready.”

**.**

Jonathan sighed and picked up his receiver, he dialed Steve’s number and waited while it rang. Tapping his fingers on the counter.

“Steve, its Jonathan. So, you are never going to believe what happened today!”  


**.**

“Mrs. B and the Chief _finally_ got together!” Steve told Nancy triumphantly.

“You know you really had nothing to do with that,” Nancy said as she leaned into him.

“I had a little something to do with it!” Steve insisted, not knowing how close to the truth he actually was.

If he hadn’t been the one to try and get them in the same room, Hopper might not have ever gotten up the courage to tell Joyce how he felt about her. He could face aliens and the government and abusive husbands but when it came to matters of the heart, he had a lot of trouble even admitting to himself how he felt.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” Nancy answered, kissing him on the cheek affectionately. “You got it right once, Steve. It doesn’t mean it’ll happen again you know.”

“Really? Because I think it’s about time we set Jonathon up with a nice girl. Then we can all double-date! Do you know anybody who’d be willing to date a moody photographer?”

Nancy laughed and shook her head. “Here we go again.”

“But you’re in, right?” Steve asked.

“Steve you know that wherever you are concerned, I am _always_ in!” Nancy replied.

**.**

Joyce and Hopper got married almost exactly a year later.

Steve would have liked to say he had a hand in that too but he had to give Hopper _some_ credit. He looked over at where Jonathan was standing with his date. The stoic boy almost looked happy with the petite blonde by his side.

There was nothing more satisfying than a match well made, Steve thought, catching Nancy’s glance in the setting sun.

Well. . . almost nothing.

He got to dance with the prettiest girl at the wedding and _that_ was pretty much the best thing ever.

**The End**


End file.
